Poll: 60 Percent of Democrats Support the Keystone XL Pipeline

(CNSNews.com) – A Harris Interactive Poll released last week by the American Petroleum Institute shows that 60 percent of Democratic voters support the building of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Better than 90 percent (92) of Republicans voters support its construction.

Overall, the poll showed that 75 percent of responders favored the construction of the pipeline and 17 percent opposed.

The survey was conducted on Nov. 6 -- Election Day -- among 827 interviewees.

Most of the voters surveyed also supported increased access to domestic energy resources, according to the poll.

Overall, 73 percent of voters said they favor “increased access to domestic oil and natural gas resources,” and 15 percent were opposed. Of those that support increased access to domestic oil and natural gas resources, 49 percent strongly support the move, whereas only 9 percent strongly oppose.

Many of those voters strongly agreed (91 percent) that increasing access to America’s oil and natural gas resources could lead to more jobs. Only 7 percent disagreed.

Eighty-six percent of voters those better access to oil and natural gas in the United States could help lower energy costs, with 61 percent of those voters strongly agreeing, and 25 percent somewhat agreeing. Just 11 percent disagreed.

Sixty-eight percent thought increasing energy taxes “hurts everyone” because the costs for the companies would be passed on to consumers. Twenty eight percent disagreed.

Many voters (69 percent) supported changing federal policies that keep more than 85 percent of offshore areas off-limits to domestic oil and natural gas developers. Less than a quarter (23 percent) opposed changing those federal policies.

Ninety-four percent of voters thought “the issue of America’s energy security and producing more oil and natural gas here at home” was important. Seventy-four percent thouse the issue was “very important” and 20 percent thought it was “somewhat important.”

Only 5 percent thought it was “not important.”

The survey was conducted by telephone and had a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent with a 95 percent confidence factor.